


Protective

by teagarden15



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25384813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teagarden15/pseuds/teagarden15
Summary: The guys of the Mankai company can be a little protective of their director, but sometimes that protectiveness is warranted.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 115





	Protective

Izumi sighed discretely as she glanced between her phone and the plumber working on a currently defunct toilet within the dorms. She had so much work she needed to get done today, but instead she was standing in the doorway of a bathroom in case the plumber needed anything from her. With twenty-six people living in the dorms, twenty-four actors plus Izumi and Matsukawa, getting the broken toilet fixed was a top priority, but it was still frustrating to spend who knew how many hours of her day here while getting barely any work done from her phone. 

“This place is pretty big,” the plumber said casually as he worked, peering under the lid of the toilet to investigate the problem. “Are you an apartment complex owner or something?” 

“An apartment owner? Oh, no, these are dorms for actors.” She found his question a little odd since she didn’t imagine there were many apartments that didn’t include bathrooms inside each apartment. Though there were some pretty cheap apartments out there, most people probably at least demanded and expected that much. 

“Actors, huh?” he glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled as he looked at her from top to bottom. “You one of the actors?”

“Me?” she asked, putting a hand to her chest before laughing. “Oh no, not at all. I’m the director. You won’t ever see me on stage.”

“Pity. You look like you’ve got a good face for that kind of thing.” He took out a tool and worked for a few more minutes before asking, “So, you alone here during the day?” 

“Alone?” Izumi repeated wondering why that would matter and thinking that was a bit of an odd question for small talk. 

“No, she’s not,” Omi’s deep voice said from behind her. 

She and the plumber both turned to give Omi a startled look and he gave them a broad smile in return. 

“Can I talk to you for a moment, Izumi?” Omi asked, his hand brushing her elbow.

“Um, sure,” Izumi agreed before turning to the plumber and saying, “Excuse me for a moment.” 

Omi walked down the hall until they were out of earshot from the plumber, then frowned down at her. “I have a photoshoot I need to leave for in five minutes, but I was already leery of leaving you here with a stranger and after a comment like that, now I’m really not okay with leaving you here alone.” 

“I don’t think he meant anything by it,” Izumi said, returning his frown. “And it’s important that you arrive on time for your job. You’re just starting to build your business as a photographer, you can’t risk upsetting your clients by arriving late or cancelling on them.” 

“Maybe he meant something by it and maybe he didn’t,” Omi said, crossing his arms over his chest. “But it’s not worth taking the risk that maybe he did mean something by it. I’m not comfortable with this, Izumi.”

Omi didn’t look like he would budge, so she started wracking her brain for where all her actors were at that moment. 

“Hisoka!” she exclaimed, perking up. “He should be here today. I remember Tsumugi saying that Hisoka didn’t have a shift today. Let’s see if we can find him.” 

Unfortunately, Hisoka was probably the most difficult of all the actors to find. They first checked his room, then Azuma’s and Guy’s room since he liked to sleep in there, then the common room, the kitchen, the practice room . . . 

“He likes to sleep outside sometimes,” Izumi remembered, though several of them had told him several times that he would catch cold that way. “Maybe he’s in the courtyard.”

“If he’s in the courtyard, he should have heard us calling for him when we looked in both his room and Azuma’s room, but I guess he might not have heard us because he was asleep.” 

They headed there next, calling out for Hisoka. Izumi felt a little like they were looking for a lost child. 

Stressed and desperate because she wanted Omi to get to his job on time she started calling, “Here kitty, kitty! Here kitty, kitty!”

Omi gave her a look like she’d lost her mind, but when Izumi heard an answering meow from behind a bench, she ran that way. “Ah ha!” she cried pointing a triumphant finger at Hisoka, sleeping behind the bench with a cat on his chest. “I’ll have to remember to tell Tasuka and Tsumugi to try that out they next time they can’t find Hisoka.”

Hisoka’s eyes scrunched up before he opened them to only slits. “Why are you being so noisy?” he asked, rubbing the cat’s head. “You’ll scare my friend away.” 

“Sorry, Hisoka,” Omi apologized. “But we need you to stand guard while Izumi is with the plumber. He said something that made me uncomfortable and I don’t want to leave her alone with him.” 

Hisoka frowned and sat up, gently moving the cat to the side. The look in his eyes sharpened as he stared between Izumi and Omi. “Uncomfortable how?” 

“It might be nothing,” Omi admitted. “But I’d much rather we be on the safe side.”

“Okay,” Izumi said, giving Omi a push on his back. “We found Hisoka and I’ll take him back with me. Now go to your job.” 

“I’m going, I’m going. Thanks for helping out, Hisoka. Izumi, send me a text when the plumber leaves all right?” 

“All right,” Izumi agreed, waving to Omi’s back. “We’ll see you tonight.” She turned to Hisoka. “Well, I guess we’d better get back.” 

~.~

“You have a new friend with you this time?” the plumber asked as Hisoka laid down on the floor outside the hallway, promptly resuming his nap. 

“Yeah, we caught him sleeping outside. He has the amazing ability to fall asleep anytime anywhere, but we worry about him getting sick when he sleeps outside, so I brought him with me to keep an eye on him.” 

The plumber made a noncommittal noise before returning to his work, so Izumi pulled out her phone to try to get some of her own work done. 

More time passed before the plumber stood. “That should do it,” he said, flushing the toilet. 

Izumi was thrilled to see that everything worked as it should. “Wonderful! Thank you so much!”

“That guy sure is out like a light,” the plumber said, peering behind Izumi. “He’s been out from the moment he laid down . . . Is he a heavy sleeper? Seems like a guy who can fall asleep anytime anywhere would be a heavy sleeper.” 

Izumi opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Like the plumber’s question about whether Izumi was home alone, there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with what he’d said, the comment just seemed a bit off. 

The plumber smiled and took a step toward her, leaving his tools where they lay. “So is he?” 

Before Izumi could decide whether she should take a step back, Hisoka was between her and the plumber. “No,” he said. “I’m not.” 

“Gah!” the plumber cried out, tripping over his feet in attempt to get away from Hisoka. 

Izumi covered a smile with her hand. Hisoka could move faster than anyone she’d ever seen, and the Mankai Theater had some seriously impressive athletes. She didn’t blame the man for being surprised. 

“If you’re done, you can leave now, right?” Hisoka asked. “Get your tools so Izumi can pay you.” 

The plumber’s face scrunched in anger, but as he straightened to confront Hisoka, he seemed to see something in Hisoka’s eyes that made him immediately back down. 

“Yeah, whatever,” he muttered, kneeling to gather his tools. 

After, they went to the front entryway and Izumi paid the plumber, Hisoka standing right behind her the entire time. 

After the plumber left, she was surprised to see Hisoka still staring at her. 

“What?” she asked.

“You should tell Sakyo,” Hisoka said.

“Sakyo?” she repeated, just the thought making her nervous for the plumber. “I was more thinking I would email the plumbing company and let them know that the man who came here made some off-color comments that made me nervous. I don’t think we need to involve Sakyo.”

“Involve me in what?” Sakyo asked from behind her.

Izumi let out an “Eep!” as she spun around. “Sakyo! What are you doing here?”

“I was in the area for work, so thought I’d come home for lunch.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked between Hisoka and Izumi, his mouth curling down in a frown. “Involve me in what?”

“The plumber,” Hisoka said, moving to the couch and curling up in the corner. “He was a problem.”

Sakyo’s frowned deepened. “Did he overcharge us? Or not fix the toilet properly?”

“No,” Izumi said slowly, drawing out the word. She could see Sakyo growing irritated, so decided to just say what happened before he started growling at her. “He made some comments that were . . . I don’t know, unnerving maybe? They weren’t things you should say to a woman when you’re alone with her. He made Omi nervous, but Omi had to leave, so then we found Hisoka to stay with me.” She glanced at Hisoka, who, surprisingly, was still awake and staring at them, though his eyelids were starting to droop. “And at one point Hisoka felt the need to get between me and the guy.”

“He had a bad aura,” Hisoka said simply. “I think he would have tried something.” 

Sakyo’s eyes went cold. “Give me the name of the plumber and the address of the company,” he demanded. 

“Um, I was just going to send an email,” Izumi said uncertainly. They didn’t know for sure if the guy would have done something and she didn’t want to make a big deal out of something that might just be a big misunderstanding. 

“An email?” Sakyo scoffed. “You think that will have any affect? What if the man was planning on doing something, but was only stopped by Hisoka and Omi? What if you send an email that they ignore and this man does something to some other woman?” He leveled Izumi with a challenging look. “They might ignore an email, but they won’t ignore me.” 

Izumi was one hundred percent sure that was true and he had a point. “I’ll get you the address,” she said, grabbing a scrap of paper and looking up the plumbing agency on her phone. She handed the scrap to Sakyo, but when he turned she called out, “Wait!” 

He paused. 

“You came here for lunch, right? So you need something to eat.” She ran to the fridge. “Misumi has some onigiri in here. You take his for the road and I’ll make some more to replace it.”

Sakyo’s eyes softened as Izumi handed him the onigiri in a box. “Thank you. I’ll see you tonight.”

“See you!” Izumi called before remembering her promise to Omi and pulling out her phone again. She texted him that the toilet was fixed, the plumber had left, and that Sakyo planned to speak to the plumbing company. 

Omi texted back that he was glad that everything was okay and he thought it was a good idea that Sakyo speak to the company. That made Izumi sweat drop. Omi must have been really worried if he thought Sakyo going was a good idea. Then Omi sent her another text asking if there had been any problems.

She glanced up at Hisoka and smiled to see that he was already asleep. She texted back that nothing had happened, but that Hisoka had felt the need to get between her and the plumber at one point. Omi replied that he was grateful that they’d grabbed Hisoka to stay with her and that he’d buy Hisoka a big pack of marshmallows on his way home. 

Izumi chuckled at that. She didn’t know if something would have happened if she’d been home alone, but regardless she was grateful to have the wonderful actors of the Mankai Theater as part of her family.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is loosely based on a real event where the woman was thankfully not hurt because her boyfriend was with her. PLEASE be careful about letting strangers into your home and try not to be alone when you do.


End file.
